A Boy Was Crying

A Boy Was Crying

A Boy Was Crying

Two boys were playing on the street and met with an accident as a car hit them and sped away. The boy who lost his left ring finger in the accident was crying out loud in severe pain, blood pouring out profusely. He screamed at the other boy "I'm crying in pain, lying flat on the ground, and you are not even lifting me up, what kind of friend are you?" and turned to his friend to find his friend had lost both his hands in that accident and was barely conscious.

Moral : It's easy to judge others wrongly based on our own difficult situation, it takes sincere effort and unbiased mind to understand other's situation. The one who cries the loudest is not necessarily the one who has lost the most. No cry doesn’t mean there is no pain.

Now tell this short story to kids (without giving any hint about the moral/s) and ask them what is the moral of the story. Give it a try. You will be surprised to hear them say

Don't play on the street or words to that effect.
Moral : Sometimes we adults miss the basics.
 
Initially when I wrote the short story attached above, I did not have the part related to the kids. I as usual narrated the story to my 6-year-old son and his instant response was "Kids should not play on the street" which actually I had missed too. That's when I realized how biases both make us think in a certain direction and how they stop us from thinking in a certain direction. That event inspired to expand this a bit more and to capture various view points, and these are captured in part-2 attached below. Would be eager to know what interesting responses your kids gave to the short story above. 

The next days

Newspaper : Poor kids attacked on the street by rich people.

Politician : It’s a politically motivated attack on our party, as our party’s symbol is a hand, they attacked kids’s finger and hands respectively.

Police : Car was not registered, so we will arrest the car manufacturer. 

Newsroom : Welcome to our expert on street games, a 21-year-old boy who has grown up with video and computer games and never played on street but is an expert of street games. 

State minister : It’s problem of the other state. 

Neighbours : Our kids never play on the street, it is fault of those kids. 

Home-maker mother (looking for a job): Why did the mothers leave the kids on the street and go to work? It’s those mother’s fault.

Guru: That street was long ago a playground, so the muscle memory from the previous life makes the kids play on that street. 

Young woman : Boys are just stupid, what else can one say. 

Actor : I was not driving, it was my driver, oh sorry, I got used to this line, actually this time it was not my car, not even my city. 

NGO : All grounds are concrete blocks now, where will children play?

Fake equal rights group : This is discrimination and inequality in practice. The boy whose hands were cut off belongs to minority, the boy from majority lost only his left finger, at least right hand finger would be somewhat fair.

The two boys : Getting treated at hospital. What’s all this nonsense about? We can at least play football. 

Every event has 100s of events in the past that led to that event. Every event has 100s of views based on 100s of biases.

Pdf version is provided here

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